Egypt announces first Coronavirus infection

CAIRO – 14 February 2020: Egypt’s Health Ministry announced, Friday first Coronavirus infection for a ‘Chinese’ national in Egypt.

Spokesperson for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said that the laboratory tests which were conducted for the suspected case at Cairo International Airport, resulted in a positive virus, however no symptoms appears on the infected person.

The ministry said in a statement that they informed World Health Organization (WHO) as soon as they suspected the infection.

It was explained that discovering the case comes amid the ministry’s precaution plan to follow-up with the travelers coming from the countries which recorded Infections with coronavirus.

Megahed affirmed that all necessary measures have been taken in cooperation with WHO.

“The case was transferred by a “self-sterilized” ambulance to a hospital to be isolated and followed-up” Megahed said, adding that the infected person condition is completely stable.

Ministry has taken strict measures against those who were in direct contact with the infected person according to the statement. They were isolated in their locations of residence as a precautionary measure for a period of 14 days, the ministry stated.

Representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt, John Gabor praised Egypt’s transparency dealing with the situation, and “its keenness to inform WHO of the case as soon as it was discovered.

John stressed that Egypt was one of the first countries to develop a good preventive plan against Coronavirus, as it was provided with an accurate detectors to discover any case infected with the new emerging virus.